The Role of Mental and Motor Processes in Conceiving, Developing and Validating 3D Interactive Human Anatomy Learning Tools

Abstract

Understanding human anatomy requires several mental and motor processes: i) mental imagery: the ability to mentally represent a physical object, a concept or a situation; ii) mental rotation: the ability to mentally turn the image of an object in the three space planes; iii) motor imagery: the ability to imagine a human movement without any real movement execution. These mental and motor processes have been used in Lyon 1 university to conceive and develop hundreds of 3D animations that are used to teach anatomy for undergraduate allied health sciences students, especially kinesiology students. All our animations are available in our YouTube Chanel “Anatomie 3D Lyon”. Our approach is experimentally validated through several paradigms. For instance, we found a significant correlation between anatomy examination results and visuo‐spatial ability tests (Guillot et al., 2007). We also showed that mental rotation training enhanced the acquisition of anatomical information requiring visuo‐spatial ability (Hoyek et al., 2009). Our 3D animations, when used in real learning condition, enhance the acquisition of anatomy knowledge requiring spatial ability as compared to 2D images (Hoyek et al., 2014). We further showed the efficiency of 3D animations compared to static 3D images in the mental representation and description of the scapula (Berney et al. 2015). In sum, 3D animations are efficient in teaching and learning anatomy, however their passive visualization lacks interaction, which is essential for anatomy learning. In our actual funded projects (Antepulsio and An@tomy 2020) we are developing new interactive tools that allow both personal body experience and good spatial representation of anatomical structures. This approach is based on evidences that body movements could improve learning of different knowledge by augmenting or enriching traces in long‐term memory. This embodied perspective is particularly relevant for functional anatomy learning as the knowledge to acquire could be specifically related to the learner’s body in motion. Our new prototypes as well as our related preliminary results will be presented during the conference. All our experiments were approved by our local ethic board. They were conducted on our kinesiology students with their understanding and consent.Support or Funding Information1) Agence Nationale de la Recherche: project An@tomy20202) Fond Unique Interministériel: project ANTEPULSIO